Is the United States about to come one step closer to a cashless society?
Last year, the Trump administration announced that the U.S. Mint would no longer produce pennies.
The reason for the move was that it cost more to make the penny than it’s actually worth.
Now, some coin experts believe the nickel will be next.
The Hill provided a more in-depth report on the future of the nickel:
The penny met its death in 2025, with factors like manufacturing cost and lack of appeal, coupled with a life of purgatory in couch cushions and car cupholders outside of circulation, contributing to its demise.
While we’re still dealing with empty penny slots and altered change following that decision, some attention is turning to the next-lowest denomination of coins: the nickel.
The most recent data from the U.S. Mint, for fiscal year 2024, shows it costs nearly 14 cents to make a nickel. While it’s not the most expensive coin the U.S. mints, it’s the only other cent besides the penny that the U.S. lost money on in 2024.
The five-cent piece has gained some value, at least to retailers and customers, now that no new pennies are entering circulation (there are new pennies being minted this year, however).
Many retailers have warned that, because pennies are harder to come by – you may be partially to blame, but more on that in a moment – they may round the change you receive when paying with cash. In most cases, transactions are being rounded to the nearest nickel in your favor.
That may not be enough to save the nickel, however.
“It’s actually a little easier to get rid of the nickel,” Robert Whaples, a professor of economics at Wake Forest University, explained to Nexstar. With dimes and quarters, there are other ways to make change that ends in a zero or five. Only pennies can be used to give you $1.27 in change.
The U.S. did away with its one-cent coin, which means the focus may be shifting to the next-lowest coin: the nickel.
READ MORE: https://t.co/hjyqZXsnKu pic.twitter.com/HXxsxNjkCj
— WGN TV News (@WGNNews) February 9, 2026
Here’s the moment the U.S. Mint made the last penny:
After 232 years, today the U.S. mint has made the last Penny pic.twitter.com/Hir3U7Nc76
— TaraBull (@TaraBull) November 12, 2025
Politico reported more on the Trump administration discontinuing the penny:
President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to halt production of the U.S. penny is rippling through the economy faster than expected, triggering widespread shortages of the one-cent coin and headaches for retailers and banks.
The administration has moved quickly to wind down penny production as a cost-cutting measure, following Trump’s February call to “rip the waste out of our great [nation’s] budget, even if it’s a penny at a time.”
The historic transition away from the penny becomes official this week. U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the final circulating one-cent coin at the Philadelphia Mint Wednesday afternoon, marking the end of the penny first authorized under the Coinage Act of 1792.
While the U.S. Mint plans to produce collector versions of the penny in “limited quantities,” its regular penny operations — which churned out 3.2 billion one-cent coins last fiscal year — are coming to a stop. Winding down that machinery, however, has revealed how deeply the penny remains embedded in everyday commerce. Ending a coin that has circulated for more than two centuries has turned out to be complicated, especially on the Trump administration’s fast track.
Retailers, banks and convenience stores have spent months scrambling to adapt as pennies disappear from cash drawers. Shortages began piling up around Labor Day and have steadily worsened since.
As of last week, the Federal Reserve — which oversees coin distribution for the government — has suspended penny orders at 100 of its 181 regional distribution sites, with more expected to follow.
What do you think about the possibility of the nickel no longer being made?
Let us know your thoughts below!